Roma back in the race thanks to timely Dzeko double
MILAN — Edin Dzeko blasted a brace and former AC Milan striker Stephan El Shaarawy added a third goal as Roma secured a 4-1 win that vaulted the capital side back to second place in Serie A on Sunday.
Roma traveled to San Siro stadium under plenty of pressure after Napoli’s 3-1 win over Cagliari on Saturday took the southerners up to second, eight points back of leader Juventus.
Lazio also kept Luciano Spalletti’s men on their toes with a 7-3 thrashing of Sampdoria that moved it to within three points of third and a possible Champions League qualifying place.
But Roma, which has finished runner-up eight times since it last won the scudetto in 2001, was in no mood to give up its chance of securing the league’s second automatic Champions League qualifying spot.
“We had to take the bull by the horns,” Spalletti told Mediaset when asked about last week’s 3-1 derby defeat to Lazio.
Dzeko had the visiting side up 2-0 by the 28th minute, the Bosnian taking his league tally to 27 goals to move two goals clear of Torino’s Andrea Belotti at the top of the scoring race.
Milan reduced the deficit in the 76th minute when Mario Pasalic dived to meet the ball on a corner kick, beating Wojciech Szczesny at the goalkeeper’s back post.
But Roma rebounded immediately.
El Shaaray, who joined the capital club in 2015 after finding fewer opportunities in his final two seasons of a fouryear spell at Milan, made sure his old team knew what it was missing 12 minutes from the end when he beat Gianluigi Donnarumma with a superb curling effort from the edge of the area.
El Shaarawy didn’t celebrate, but minutes later he punished Milan again when he found Mohamed Salah with a quickly-taken freekick down the right flank.
The Egyptian easily rounded Gabriel Paletta in the area, but after being pulled back several times by the veteran defender Salah, he tumbled to the turf as he prepared to pull the trigger.
The referee pointed to the spot and captain Daniele De Rossi stepped up to beat Donnarumma with a low shot.
“It’s not easy to come here and score four goals, but we had 90 perfect minutes apart from the goal that we conceded,” said Dzeko.
“I’m personally happy because I’ve worked hard all season, and that’s good for my confidence — even though the team comes first.”
Earlier, Ciro Immobile hit a brace in a 10-goal thriller as Lazio secured a Europa League spot a week after a 3-1 romp over Roma in the city derby.
“We played great,” said Lazio leftback Jordan Lukaku. “It wasn’t easy to produce a repeat of our derby win, but every one of us put everything into this game.”
Keita Balde scored twice for Lazio last week in a win that ruined what was Roma icon Francesco Totti’s final derby appearance as a player.
Balde, a Senegal international, gave Lazio an early lead before winning a penalty that Immobile fired past keeper Christian Puggioni.
Samp reduced the deficit on a goal by Karol Linetty, who tapped past Strakosha at the back post.
Lazio netted three in succession through Wesley Hoedt, Felipe Anderson and Dutch defender Stefan De Vrij before halftime before Senad Lulic and Immobile wrapped up the scoring.
Elsewhere, Inter Milan stretched its winless run to seven games after succumbing 1-0 at Genoa after a 70th-minute strike by Goran Pandev.
It was Inter’s third loss in a row and fifth in its past seven matches, leaving it in seventh place, nine points behind Atalanta and with virtually no chance of qualifying for Europe.
Coach Stefano Pioli rejected suggestions he could resign, saying: “I haven’t seen anyone else before me do it, so I won’t resign. There’s is a lot of work still to be done.”